A little less than three weeks ago I took possession of this 4″ Taurus Tracker, new in box. In that time I’ve carried it every waking minute, fired just over 300 rounds of various lots of ammo through it, and generally treated it like the EDC gun I got it to be. Wanted to hold off on writing a review until I had thoroughly gotten to know it.
All in all, for an inexpensive revolver it does the job very well and I expect us to be friends. I’m told this particular gun became available on consignment when an expensive elk-hunting expedition fell through, the hunter having purchased it as a backup specifically for that trip. So I got a good price for it, but it was new and unfired when it arrived at the Lair.
Frankly if this were a zillion-dollar Smith & Wesson I’d have gone bitching to the seller, because the Taurus is not without flaw. In particular may I say that when you carry a handgun for serious purposes, as I do, the most disturbing noise the gun can make is “click.” And this one sometimes makes that noise. I’ve now owned two Taurus revolvers, and both were prone to light strikes on hard primers when firing double action. With the Tracker, this has now happened three times in 250 rounds of reloads with notoriously hard CCI primers. It has never yet happened with commercial ammo, nor has it happened in single action. My old 431 had the same issue – in fact it did the bad thing chronically until I replaced the mainspring. But the 431 was 20 years old, used hard and frequently put up wet. I would think a NIB revolver would not suffer the same failing, but it does.
So, there’s that. Of course I don’t carry the gun loaded with handloads, because I’m not a moron. Handloads are for practice, and things like this are why I’m notoriously stingy with commercial ammo at the range. But because I’m interested in learning all the tricks and vices of this gun I will use to defend my life and/or that of my animals, lately I’ve been spending commercial ammo as if I’d just come back from picking it from the Ammo Tree. My experience is that primers in commercial ammo don’t normally give the same problems, and so far they have not.
Which brings us to the issue of Magnum ammo and the barrel porting…
This particular pistol has a feature I’ve never encountered on a revolver with barrel porting. In the old days they just bored holes in the rifled barrel. But this gun has a ported and unrifled expansion chamber in the final inch, so it’s more like an integral muzzle brake. This provides the advantage that it doesn’t matter what kind of bullets you choose to use. In the old days, you were supposed to avoid shooting cast bullets because bits of bullet would peel off into the ports. On this gun, that’s not a factor. But it does mean that calling it a 4″ barrel is somewhat disingenuous. It’s really a 3″ barrel with a brake.
But does it do any good? I’d need an identical gun without the porting to do anything like a scientific comparison, but I’m going to go with yes. And here’s why:
Those five upper plates have made themselves my enemy for a long time. But the Taurus has largely tamed them. At 12 yards – and when I’m on my game, at 25 yards – I can get them all swinging. Never could do that with the 431. A lot of it is the much-improved sights, but just as important is the fact that this gun doesn’t give me nearly as much muzzle flip. No doubt the longer barrel is involved, but as we’ve already established the barrel is for practical purposes not but 1/2″ longer. So if old Uncle Joel is suddenly a better pistol shooter than he was last month, we’ve got to give the gun its due.
Of course that’s with light .44 Special loads. Commercial .44 Magnum ammo is startlingly more powerful than that. With Magnum loads, the lightweight gun of course becomes a handful. In the old days 35 years ago, when I competed with .44 Magnum, I had a Super Blackhawk and a heavy-barreled T/C Contender. With those guns you got one shot at a time, because after each shot your barrel was pointing at the sky. The Tracker is not a big heavy hogleg: If follow-up shots using full-power loads suddenly become easier to acquire, it’s got to be because the muzzle brake is not just styling. And I can testify that that is indeed the case. I’m not saying there’s no muzzle flip, of course there is. But this gun is not as uncontrollable with full-power ammo as it has every right to be. So the muzzle brake works.
But the Taurus Tracker is still an inexpensive revolver, and that has to show up somewhere. Some of it is in the manufacturing corners cut…
Expose portions of the gun normally covered by other components, and you find that they only finished the portions of the gun that are normally seen. I’ve stripped a S&W Model 29, and it was perfect in every way. A Taurus Tracker’s hidden bits show rough machining cuts.
Then there’s the matter of that dumb stock “Ribber” grip, which is demonstrably inferior to a proper grip. I spent money right up front on a Hogue grip for the Tracker, and already have reason to be happy I did.
So. All things said, the Taurus Tracker is not the perfect revolver. But that fact is reflected in its price point. If you understand that you’re buying an inexpensive revolver, and that revolvers are not inexpensive to manufacture, it appears to be a very good gun for what you’ve paid for.
I think we’re going to be friends.
UPDATE: Uh oh.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Long-term Review: A Tale of Three Pistols
Nice to see the new EDC gun is all you hoped it would be. One of the advantages with a wheel gun, when it goes click you simply pull the trigger again. Thanks for the tip on the CCI primers, I’m planning to start reloading in the new year. Question for you, are all primers as hard as the CCI ones? Enquiring minds want to know… :^)
Cool – I’m glad the new hogleg is working out. Have you tried shot loads (as in snake medicine) for it as well ? Or are they a non issue ?
That is interesting with the CCI primers. I also reload with CCI primers (both magnum and normal large pistol) and havent had issues.
I have noticed that they do like to be kept clean. The cylinder gap on mine is tighter than any other revolver I have ever had and can start to drag and bind if you dont keep her tidy.
I’ve had similar experiences with Tauri w/respect to the “click-no-bang” scenario. As you say, it only seems to occur when firing double-action. I’ve been told that in this mode the hammer fall travel distance is just slightly less than when single-action is employed. Combined with a perhaps marginal mainspring and perhaps somewhat harder primers, the result is what we’re discussing.
My wife shoots our 431 strictly in double-action with no problems, and I usually only shoot single-action so I cannot offer any remedial suggestions. I prefer single-action, but in a revolver carried in anticipation of a totally-unexpected emergency double-action is a desired feature.
I use CCI primers in all my reloading and have had no problems, but I’m aware that this does not seem to be a universal experience.
Hopefully, you will find a commercial ammo that will prove trouble-free.
I tried snake shot in the 431. It works, sort of, it spreads out and the pellets hit hard enough to be lethal at snake range. But it turns out to be important not to load more than one in the pistol, because the recoil pulled off the caps in all the other rounds. Pellets spilled everywhere. Embarrassing.
Don’t fall for the no reloads for self defense ridiculousness. Ayoob has made a career on that idea. Carry your reloads and use the money you would have used to buy factory ammo to shoot more.
Tony.
I too carry reloads. IMHO it depends on where you live. Anyway the point is to not get fed into the “Justice” system in the first place. It’s almost to the point these days that an offer to arrest you is a declaration of war…
I lightened up the mainspring of my CZ75 to get an easier DA pull, and found that it too would not reliably set off CCI primers. I vaguely remembered fixing the problem by using other primers, but as I look at my loading data, I see I am still using them. So my memory is not accurate… I must have gone back to a heavier spring. Sometimes you can get a tuning kit with multiple springs, one slightly lighter than the next… Maybe you just need a good spring to replace that factory one.
You also need to worry about the effect of cold on lubrication…
Anyway, just get a heavier spring, and/or use non-CCI primers (the hardest ones are the CCI #34 military primers, which are hard to avoid slam fires in M-14’s and the like).
As to machining marks, my 629 has them on the recoil plate (or whatever that is called, where the brass backs up on firing), although they are not large. It never occurred to me to worry about that. Hell, I’ve had two Dan Wesson revolvers that Grant Cunningham would not tune because holes were drilled in the wrong place! The Trackers I have seen were all just fine, and nice and light too. Perfect for carry…
My view of reliability is yeah, work in that direction, but don’t get anal about it. Any encounter where you have to pull a gun is going to have so many big factors that are “sub-optimal” that the fact your gun does not light off 3 of 250 rounds will be the least of your worries. Nice thing about revolvers is you just pull the trigger again.
I wonder if you could tape the ports closed somehow to see how much worse the recoil is? Don’t forget, even Dirty Harry used .44 Spl loads. If you don’t have grizzlies you don’t need full power loads.
The only serious point about reloads is that if you are carrying for protection against serious threats it’s a good idea to be using the best name-brand ammo you and your gun can handle with proficiency. This is the ammo you carry a lot and shoot very little, and its performance is pretty much assured.
Your good reloads will let you “keep your hand in” at reduced cost, and can be economically formulated to suit the specific purpose, whether just “plinking” or loaded up to produce recoil similar to the factory stuff for your own familiarization . . . the benefits of reloading.
🙂
I have one and I love it. It is what it is and it does what it is designed to do what it does quite well. I have one with the 4″ barrel and I shoot both hand loads, specials and magnums. Enjoy your Tracker. It doesn’t have to be a Smith or a High Dollar Eagle to do the job. Enjoy and be careful. I like them and I am glad to have one.
I just bought a tracker 44 4″ and love it. Deadly accurate out of the box. Recoil is stiff since it’s so light but I expected that. I bought for a woods gun since the black bear population has soared in western north carolina. It’s exactly what I needed. Light weight easy to handle and packs a punch. I have had one light primer strike but that was my fault. I was anticipating the recoil and as I pulled the trigger in double action i slightly let off then pulled through. I realized what I had done and it has never happened since. Good article. Many people think they can pay less than $500 for a Taurus then complain when it’s not a 900 Smith or ruger. It’s an excellent gun and does what I need it to do
I bought a blue Tracker used several years ago for very little money. I have Rugers and Smiths but the Tracker is my favorite revolver. It fits my hand perfectly, has a great trigger (I only shoot revolvers single action), handles well, shoots straight, have had no problems and it is a beautiful gun in my eyes. I load 44 Specials with 240 grain jacketed bullets to 1000 ft/sec. Recoil is minimal and they are hot enough for anything I will encounter.
I currently own and carry a Taurus Tracker .44 Magnum, I love it and although I practice more with .44 Special loads, shooting .44 Magnum full house loads is not an issue.
I got a tracker last week. Never fired 44 before. I think I love it!
I had problems with stainless on stainless galling and freezing of the locking detent on a M-44 Taurus. Have had two blued steel Taurus .44’s a Special, and another M-44 and both performed very well at their price point.
When an author intimates re loaders are moronic should they carry their carefully loaded ammunition , a prudent person would take anything further said with a grain, nayooo a full jigger of salt
Your money cheerfully refunded.
Actually this is a 4″ revolver with 3″ of rifling BUT that last unrifled inch keeps the pressure up just as much as a fully rifled 4″ barrel would, To me it’s all about velocity and his revolver gives 4″ of 44 mag. velocity,
I’ll check on my Magnetospeed V3 just to be sure.